Have you ever wondered what a Tianjin hutong might look like, and just where to find one? Well we did, and thought we'd go in search of one.

Hutongs are old housing communities made up of close-knit families, and is the way many Chinese lived for several generations (especially in Beijing). And now many of these ancient and historical housing landmarks are being flattened, and the sites used to build department stores, metro stations, and commercial and financial streets.

The word "hutong" has been widely used in Beijing ever since the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368), and it is said that its original meaning was a well for drawing water. In ancient times Beijing was short of water, and people usually lived near wells where a source of water could be found. When building houses, a passage was often left between them for access to the wells, and hutongs gradually formed as more and more people came to live alongside them and the passageways became longer.

Zhang Qingchang, a linguist, said that "hutong" in Chinese originated from "huto" in Mongolian, which also means "well". But over a long period of time the word came to me "streets and lanes."